Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) -- The European Union spent 126 billion
euros ($171 billion) on cancer costs in 2009, according to a
study by U.K. researchers that may help officials choose where
to spend to fight disease.

Health care accounted for 51 billion euros, or about 40
percent, of the spending, they wrote in the journal Lancet
Oncology. Drugs accounted for 13.6 billion euros of the medical
costs. Other expenses stemmed from care and lost productivity,
according to the study funded by New York-based drugmaker Pfizer
Inc.

“Cancer is one of the biggest stressors on the health
system in terms of cost,” Richard Sullivan, one of the authors
and a professor of cancer policy and global health at King’s
College London, said in a telephone interview. “As these
countries’ economies are starting to implode under the weight of
debt, cancer care is starting to drop off.”

The work is the first EU-wide study of cancer costs and may
enable policy makers to better allocate funding, which may
improve outcomes, he said. The union had 27 members in 2009.

The data in the study included the cost of care provided by
relatives and friends and lost productivity due to premature
death and illness. Those informal care costs were estimated in
the study at 23.2 billion euros and lost productivity at 52
billion euros.

On average the EU spent 102 euros a person on cancer-related health care, compared with $255 per person in the U.S.,
which is more than any country in Europe, the authors wrote.

Higher Prices

“The U.S. has absorbed more significantly higher drug
prices and they’re not getting the benefits for the price of
those drugs,” Sullivan said.

Luxembourg and Germany spent the most per person on health
care for cancer and Bulgaria and Lithuania spent the least.
Countries that spent above the EU average tended to have
belonged to the union longer, compared with those that spent
less, which tended to have joined the EU after the 2004
accession that added 10 countries.

“People think of Europe as being this homogeneous group,”
Sullivan said. “That’s just not true. There are these huge
disparities.” He’s doing further research on the relationship
between spending on cancer care and outcomes, he said.

In absolute terms, Germany had the highest cost from cancer
at 35.1 billion euros, according to the study.

The researchers used data collected by international
organizations such as the World Health Organization and
Eurostat, as well as national health ministries and statistical
institutes. They weren’t able to obtain data about some costs,
such as screening programs, which weren’t available for all the
countries studied.